Best Northwest Lake Getaways: Lakedale
At this San Juan Island spot, prepare for an experience right out of 'Dirty Dancing.'
By Jess Thomson August 8, 2017
This article originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
Check out the rest of our 26 Best Lakeside Getawways in the Northwest here.
San Juan Island’s cozy Lakedale Resort—just 5 miles from where the ferry docks at Friday Harbor—lets you experience three small island lakes in whatever style fits your crew best: in family-friendly cabins with full kitchens, in canvas glamping “cottages,” in the adults-only lodge or even in your own tent. It’s campy—think Dirty Dancing without the dancing lessons, but with the full-on activities tent—yet there’s no better place to unwind, learn to fish and stare at nature without the distraction of pesky cell service.
When we arrived on an unseasonably rainy day for a stay in Cabin 2, it was hard not to feel disappointed by the weather. But by dinnertime (we picked up hot dogs and a s’mores kit at the resort’s cute general store to cook over our outdoor fire pit), the weather cleared, and our 7-year-old had discovered two life-size outdoor chessboards and a lake well stocked with rainbow trout. By day three, Lakedale had become our new world, the kind where no one cares how many days your hair has been in a ponytail, you read books sprawled out on a lawn by a lake and at night, you catch yourself dancing with complete strangers.
While some accommodations come with breakfast, it’s worth the short, windy drive back into Friday Harbor for croissant-dough cinnamon rolls and good coffee at Cafe Demeter. Grab a sourdough baguette and a bottle of wine while you’re there, then step across the street to the new San Juan Island Cheese for an excellent picnic selection. And, well, if you happen to be in town for happy hour, don’t miss the thick duck fat fries at the restaurant at Friday Harbor House.
Insider Tip
While you can’t book specific cabins or campsites, you can suggest specific spots in the notes section of the online booking system. Book early for Campsite 30, Cottage 6 or for legit vintage style, the Airstream trailer.
GETTING THERE: Total travel time to Lakedale Resort from Seattle, including a one-and-a-half-hour drive north to Anacortes and a ferry ride to San Juan Island, is about four hours.
The Coordinates
Lakedale Resort, 4313 Roche Harbor Road; 360.378.2350; . From $50 for campsites, $179 for canvas cabins, $290 for lodge rooms, $459 for log cabins.
Cafe Demeter, 80 Nichols St.; 360.370.5443
San Juan Island Cheese, 155 Nichols St.; 360.370.5115
The Restaurant at Friday Harbor House, 130 West St.; 360.378.8455
Follow Us
A New Place to Ice Skate by the Water
Hyatt Regency Lake Washington’s dockside rink offers lake views and eco-friendly synthetic ice.
Skating season has officially arrived. There’s a particular joy in gliding—or trying to—on cold days. I always go for the outdoor rinks, especially the ones strung with twinkling lights. It can be so romantic. And this year, there’s a new place to lace up. A 71-foot by 38-foot covered Glice rink is up and running…
Bergen: Finding a Home, Abroad
A trip across western Norway reveals strikingly Northwest sensibilities.
A few months ago, we randomly walked into Wallingford’s Fat Cat Records. Greeting us, face-out by the cash register, was not Nirvana, not Soundgarden, but Peer Gynt Suite, by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Was this a Norse omen, a mischievous prank from Loki? For us, two Seattleites with a trip to Norway on the…
Hives Among the Headstones
Inside a north Seattle project reimagining cemeteries as sanctuaries for pollinators.
In many old stories, bees are more than just insects. They’re messengers—tiny intermediaries between the living and the dead. There was once even a custom in Europe and America known as “telling the bees:” When a family member died, or another significant life event occurred, someone would go to the hive to share the news….
Dispatches from Greenland, Part Two: Nuuk
An insider’s guide to Greenland’s mysterious, overlooked, and charming capital.
Greenland is too vast to take in all at once. Yet a few days in Nuuk—the island’s compact, curious capital, just a four-hour flight from Newark—offer a surprisingly complete portrait. Nuuk changes like the weather that shapes it: by turns wild and polished; intimate and bold. To Northerners, it feels as hectic as Manhattan; to…